Just under a week ago, the Mets tabbed their new bench coach to work as new manager Carlos Beltran‘s right hand man: Hensley Meulens.
Meulens, 52, has been involved with professional baseball since signing with the New York Yankees as an undrafted free agent in 1985 out of Willemstad, Curacao.
The outfielder didn’t see much success when he ultimately reached the majors in 1989. He played in MLB for parts of seven seasons, with the most games he played being 96 in 1991.
In 1994, he played overseas in Japan with the Chiba Lotte Marines, then from 1995-96 with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. In 2000 after a brief return to the MLB, he again played overseas with SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization.
After his playing career ended, Meulens coached for the Netherlands in the 2004 Summer Olympics and 2009 in the World Baseball Classic. He then managed the Netherlands in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.
Between these endeavors, Meulens was working his way up as a coach in the MLB. After several years, he secured a position as hitting coach with the San Francisco Giants in 2010, where he remained until this season (the final two years as their bench coach).
Meulens saw the Giants win three World Series championships in his time with the team. In 2017, he interviewed with the New York Yankees for their managerial opening, but was ultimately snubbed in favor of Aaron Boone. However, Meulens is a name that has been floated around as a rising managerial candidate in baseball.
Here’s what a few players had to say about Meulens back in 2017:
Buster Posey: “It’s on us to go out and perform. We’ve all been doing this for awhile and there has to be accountability on our part. I think we understand that, and that’s why nobody is blaming Bam Bam.”
Brandon Belt: “It’s hard to sit there and blame it on a coach. We’re big league hitters. We know how to hit. At some point we have to take it upon ourselves and do it ourselves. I know it’s easy to put blame on people like that, but it’s up to us. That’s all there is to it.”
Posey Also offered his support for Meulens as a coach: “I don’t think you’ll find anybody in this clubhouse who has something bad to say about Bam Bam. I’ve been with him for a long time now and I always try to compliment him on how positive he is. We’ve been through ups and downs, won three championships with him, going through a pretty bad down period right now, but he’s still the same guy. That is not easy to do. I think he’s gained all of our respect because of that.”
Meulens is also the only player or coach in MLB history from Curaco. He’s the only coach in baseball that can speak five languages as well. He speaks Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, English, and Papiamento.
It’ll be interesting to see how Meulens fares as bench coach for Beltran, considering it’s the latter’s first time managing. However, the two have a good relationship from their time together with the Giants in 2011.
